Forex news update regular

[fxhasibul 10]

What’s next? – USDJPY 23.03.18

The dollar was trading 0.28 percent lower vs the Japanese yen at 105.75 as of 04:50 GMT on Thursday, with traders preparing for a fresh batch of economic data while digesting Fed’s move.

The US central bank raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points and reinforced the idea of further monetary policy adjustments for the near future.

The Federal Reserve rose interest rates to a range between 1.50 and 1.75 percent. The move was widely anticipated and therefore little reaction was seen following the announcement.

The US dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, was trading 0.24 percent lower at 89.16 by the time of this writing.

Analysts had previously warned that this monetary meeting was likely turn into a buy-the-rumor-sell-the-fact event. Investors opted to take profits after the rate hike, pushing the American currency to the downside by the end of the session.

This monetary policy meeting has been the first one with Jerome Powell as Chair of the Federal Reserve. Overall, he remained on a hawkish side, insisting that the economy won’t overheat.

Among different topics mentioned during his remarks, the Fed chief recognized that "a number of participants in the [FOMC] did bring up the issue of [Donald Trump’s import] tariffs"

Investment bank Wells Fargo said it forecasts for four interest rate hikes in 2018 remains in place, as they see inflation picking up in the next few months and strong labor conditions.

“Financial market and geopolitical uncertainties could keep gold at relatively high levels despite the strong economic growth that should favor interest rate hikes,” Desjardins Group said.

On the data front, existing home sales for February came in at a 5.54 million rate, displaying a better-than-expected increase of 3.0 percent against a forecasted 0.5 percent.

Ahead in the day, traders will keep an eye on initial jobless claims at 12:30 GMT and preliminary readings on the manufacturing and services PMIs for March at 13:45 GMT.